Tessellation

Do you know what a TESSELLATION is?

A tessellation is a collection of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps or no gaps. It is also known as tiling.

In all my bleep-bleep years, I never knew the word existed. I knew that these tiling patterns could be found here and yonder. I have always been fascinated with them. But what I didn't know that there was a word and a science that came with it.

It was MyGirl that led me to this word as she was doing her Year 3 Math workbook problems. (Apparently, I am NOT smarter than a third-grader!)

In our shipping boxes, I have a book with the works of M.S. Escher. Apparently many of his works are considered tessellations. I think he is an awesome artist. (I will eventually figure out what it is about Escher I would like to write.)

There are regular tessellations. There are three rules in making regular tessellations,

Rule #1 : The tessellation must tile a surface with no overlapping or gaps.

Rule #2 : The tiles must be regular polygons and all the same.

Rule #3 : Each vertex must look the same.

a tessellation of triangles
a tessellation of squares
a tessellation of hexagons

Pretty!

There are also semi-regular tessellations. These are made by using two or more different regular polygons. The rules are still the same. Every vertex must have the same configuration.

To name a semi-regular tessellation, go around one vertex and count the number of sides of the polygon that form that vertex. Don't forget to start with the smallest numbers coming first.

3, 6, 3, 6

3, 3, 3, 3, 6

3, 3, 3, 4, 4

3, 3, 4, 3, 4

More samples of semi-regular tessellations.

Simply amazing.

(It is possible that my simple brain loves these shapes because there is rhythm, regularity, and consistency in the patterns. When I go out with my camera, I think I will capture some tessellations and post them.)